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Thursday, April 22, 2010

I have painted every one of my lamp shades. Either on the inside or on the outside. And all of my wall colors I have painted with at least 3 different shades of color, one on top of the other, leaving open spaces for each individual color to come forward.

Some colors are difficult. Green for instance. Green needs a lot of natural light or the room will feel like a dungeon. Yellow is another difficult color. It can look brassy and needs to be calmed down. I always start with a color that is darker and livelier than the end result should be. The adjustment is made with the next two color applications.

The walls are glowing. The mood of the room is changed with the flick of the light switch. Complexions improve. Faces soften. The sun is always shining. Gina

Hi Barbara,The first 2 coats of paint are not thinned. The next 3 coats (or more) are thinned quite a bit, about 6 to 1. Then thinned even further, if applicable. My paint tray holds water in the bottom part and thinned-out paint in the upper section. That way I can adjust color value as I go along. I use large natural bristle brushes to achieve this effect which I have named "European Dry Brush Technique".The above technique is for light to mid-range colors. Deep tones get a totally different approach.

Great tips Gina! We live in the Pacific NW and the long days of clouds and rain make the paint you choose indoors even more important. Most of my home is done in a soft butter yellow and it always lifts my spirits even when it is gray outside. :-) Thanks so much for sharing this with us at Inspiration Friday this week!Vanessa

Hi Vanessa, I can see why the color of your walls would be so important. I have always liked the right color of yellow on walls. But what I have noticed most of all in the Northwest are the beautiful roses and other flowers you grow that do not do as well in our desert climate.

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Here I share with you my obsession with Italian Renaissance Ceramics. I decided that painting them would not be so difficult. So I set about learning. My blog is about living the simple country life, tales from our travels and, of course, my hand painted ceramics.

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